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THE NORMAN PEOPLE

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THE NORMAN PEOPLE

AND THEIR EXISTING DESCENDANTS IN THE BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

' The very concurrence and coincidence of so many evidences that contribute to the proof, carries a great weight' Sir Matthew Hale

Henry S. King & Co. 65 CoRNHiLL & 12 Paternoster Row, London 1874

{All rights reserved)

THE IIBRAKY BRIGHAM YOUrSG UNirilSlTY

TO THE MEMORY

OF

PEECY VISCOUNT STEANGFOED

PREFACE.

It is the aim of the following pages to apply genealogy to the illustration of English ethnology. The former branch of knowledge has been supposed to lie exclusively within the domain of the antiquary ; but a closer examination will, it is thought, show that the scientific observer, and the historian also, may find in it classes of facts which are not beneath their notice and investigation. If by placing genealogy on a critical and historical basis, and applying it to ethnology, we should be enabled to prove the fallacy of some generally received maxims as to the composition of the English nation to show that the ISTorman settlement at the Conquest consisted of something more than a slight infusion of a foreign element that it involved the addition of a numerous and mighty people, equalling probably a moiety of the conquered population that the people thus introduced has continued to exist without merger or absorption in any

Vlll PREFACE. Other race that, as a race, it is as distinguishable now as it was a thousand years since, and that at this hour its descendants may be counted by tens of milhons in this

country and in the United States of America ; if this be so, then it will be admitted that English ethnology is not uninterested in the progress of critical English genealogy that it may find tliere a hitherto neglected series of facts, of incalculable value to English and even to foreign ethnology. If, in addition to this, it be possible to show on historical grounds, that the earlier Northman or Danish immigration had seated in England a people scarcely inferior in number to the Anglo-Saxons ; and, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, to infer by a process of analogical reasoning from the case of the Normans, that this Danish race also has continued to exist up to the present moment, increasing in like ratio with them and the Anglo-Saxons ; and that it consec uently now rivals eacli of them in point of numbers ; if this be so, history, which at present usually contemplates ancient events in England exclusively from the AngloSaxon point of view, and under the influence of AngloSaxon feeling, will acquire greater breadth and impartiality, and will extend to the Scandinavian ancestors of a majority of the English and American people that equit-

PKEFACE. IX able judgmeut and that filial interest which are now reserved for the Anglo-Saxon ancestors of a minority. Such are some of the results which may be anticipated from the application of historical genealogy to ethnology, in which this work is a first essay. The genealogy of the Norman race leads up to its connexion with the Danish and the Anglo-Saxon, which, with it, form the three great constituents of the English nation. To trace that connexion it has been found necessary to enter on the relationship between the Gothic and Teutonic races, which, as far as the author is aware, has not as yet been treated systematically by English writers. It is hoped, however, that the views here enunciated will be found to harmonise generally with those entertained by the most enlightened enquirers. The later Scandinavian or Norman immigration into England has formed the subject of the following pages; the earlier Scandinavian or Danish has been very slightly noticed in connexion with it. The extent and difficulty of the latter subject have induced the author to reserve its further consideration for another work. January, 1874.

CONTENTS.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. I. PAGK On the Nomenclature of Races xiii II. On The Extent of the Danish Dominion in 879 . . xiii III. On the Family of Hastings xvi CHAPTER I. Discovery of the Descendants of the Norman Nobility IN England 1

CHAPTER II. Discovery of the Descendants of the Norman Commonalty IN England '26

CHAPTER III. Criticism of Family History 60 CHAPTER IV. Constructive Principles of this Work . . . .65

XI 1 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V. PAGE National Character of the Norman Settlement in England 83

CHAPTER VI. The Danish Settlement in England 101 CHAPTER VII.

Gothic Origin of the Normans, Danes, and Anglo-Saxons. Present Diffusion and Numbers of the Gothic Race . 114

Alphabetical Series of existing Norman Names and Families taken from the London Post Office Directory . . 133

APPENDIX. Norman N'ames from AA to ALL taken from the Official Lists at Somerset House 453

INDEX of Medieval Surnames in this Work . . . 457

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

I. ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF RACES. The term ' English ' in these pages is used to describe the people of England for the last seven centuries, during which it has been thus employed. It is not here applied to the natives of England from the year 500 to the Conquest, because, in the author's opinion, the race termed * English ' prior to 880 formed only a moiety of the race so termed in 1066, and. only forms a third of the race now so termed. For distinctness' sake, therefore, he uses 'Saxon' or 'Anglo-Saxon,' 'Dane,' and 'Norman,' to describe the three great and nearly equal constituents of the present ' English ' race.

II. ON THE EXTENT OF THE DANISH DOMINION IN 870. In reference to the remarks on this subject (page 102), it may be said that an extent has been there assigned to the Danish dominion after the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum in 878, which is at variance with received opinions ; and Mr. Freeman's and Mr. Pearson's statements may be cited. Those eminent writers have, undoubtedly, taken a different view of the case. The former states (Norman Conquest, i. 48), that ' by the terms of the peace of Wedmore the Northmen were to evacuate Wessex and the part of Mercia south of Watling Street ; they, or at least their chiefs, were tx) submit to baptism, and they were to receive the whole land beyond Watling Street as vassals of the West Saxon king. Guthrum, the Danish king, was accordingly baptised by the name of .^thelstan ; he took j)ossession of his new dominions,' &c. In a note the exact boundary of the two states is detailed from the treaty extant in Thorpe's 'Laws and Institutes' (i. 152),

XIV ADDITIONAL NOTES. which is assumed to be the ' peace of Wedinore.' Mr. Pearson (Hist. England, i. 1G9) repeats these statements, and expands them by adding that by * this agreement the -whole of Mercia was restored to its former dependent condition to Wessex.' The author ventures to think that these able writers have not, in this case, exhibited their usual critical discrimination. He is unable to divine their reason for terming the treaty of 878 the * peace ' or * treaty ' of ' Wedmore.' The treaty was actually concluded at Chippenham, and Wedmore is only mentioned by the earliest chroniclers as the scene of a ceremony (the chrism-loosing) some weeks later, consequent on Guthrum's baptism. They know nothing of a ' treaty of Wedmore.' The contemporary writers are equally silent as to Guthrum and the Danes holding the north of Mercia as ' vassals ' of Alfred ; or as to Guthrum's obtaining ' new dominions ' in East Anglia by gift of that Prince. These stories were invented at a later date to glorify King Alfred, and ought not to be accepted merely on the authority of the later chroniclers. Again, the author cannot but wonder that the treaty of 878 between Guthrum and Alfred should be confused by these writers with that between Guthrum and Alfred which is still extant. A very slight examination would have shown that the two treaties are wholly different. We learn from Asser, the contemporary and friend of King Alfred, that the treaty of Chippenham in 878 comprised, after the agreement for peace, two articles the speedy evacuation of x4.1fred's dominions by the Danes, and an undertaking by Guthrum to become Christian, and to receive baptism under Alfred's sponsorship. 'Juraverunt se citissime de suo regno exituros, nee non et Godrum rex eorum Christianitatem subu-e, et baptismum sub manu /Elfredi regis accipere promisit ' (Asser, de reb. gestis ^^Ifredi Ann. 878). The Saxon Chronicle aho states that by the treaty the Danes undertook to leave Alfred's kingdom (thset hie of his rice woldon), and that their king should receive baptism (Chron. Sax., ed. Petrie, p. 357), Neither of the conditions here mentioned are to be found in the extant treaty ; but instead of them we find an article defining the boundaries of the two kingdoms, which is not alluded to by the early writers as forming any part of the treaty of 878. Nor is this all that can be said. The very terms of the extant treaty show that it ought not to be confused with the treaty of 878. It is entitled ' the Peace that King Alfred aud King Guthrum and the Witan of all the English nation, and all the people tliat ai-e in East Anglia, have ordained.' A treaty made by the Danes at Chippenham in Wilts, could not well be said to be made by * the people that ai'e in East Anglia.^

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XV It is evident from the use of those terms that the treaty in which they were introduced must have been made subsequently to the Danish settlement in East Anglia ; but the Danes did not become seated in East Anglia till 880, according to Asser and the Saxon Chronicle, that is, not till two years after the treaty of Chippenham. Consequently, the treaty we now possess must have been later than the treaty of Chippenham ; and the agreement as to the boundaries passing along the Lea, Ouse, and Watling Street, was not made in 878, but at a later date. In addition to this, Mercia, south of Watling Street, is further proved to

have been the temtory of the Danes after the treaty of 878, by the statement of the Anglo-Saxon writers, that the Danes fully ' executed ' the conditions of that treaty ' quse omnia ille et sui ut promiserunt impleverunt' (Asser), and 'hie thset gelseston' (Sax. Chron.), coupled with their statement immediately after, that the Danes, ' according to their promise,' ' departed in 879 from Chippenham to Cirencester, and there remained for one year.' Cirencester was in the south of Mercia, and yet the residence of the Danes there for a year was a fulfilment of their promise under the treaty to evacuate Alfred's ' kingdom.' Therefore South Mercia under the treaty of 878 was not a part of that kingdom. Hence we see at once that Alfred was not in possession of South Mercia in 879, nor was he in possession of any territory north of the Thames till the year 886, when we find him besieging and taking London. * Interim obsidetur a rege yElfredo urbs Lundonia. . . . Etiam post manus catervse confirmatas ibi constituitur dux ^Ethered a rege prasfato custodiendi arcem ' (Ethelward Chron. iv. p. 517, Ed. Petrie), Here, then, commenced the acquisition of a part of the Danish dominion north of the Thames by conquest from the Danes, afterwards ratified by treaty. Mr. Pearson has quoted (i. 170) a charter from the Codex Diplomaticus (311) to prove that Ethelred was appointed duke of Mercia immediately after the treaty of 878. This charter undoubtedly is dated 880, and is witnessed by Alfred and by his daughter Ethelfleda (apparently as wife of Ethelred) ; and the latter is styled ' duke of Mercia ; ' but Mr. Kemble has remarked (Cod. Dipl. ii. Preface), that a large proportion of Alfred's charters are forgeries ; and it seems, either that the charter under consideration is one of these, or else that its date is an error ; for in 880 Ethelfleda was, at the outside, eleven years old (Alfred having married in 868 at nineteen years of age), and could not then have been married, nor is it likely that she should have witnessed a charter at such an age. Mr. Pearson also produces a charter stating that Wulphere's estates were, immediately after

XVI ADDITIONAL NOTES. 878, confiscfited by the Witan of Wessex ' and Mercia ; ' but there is no evidence whatever of the date of this transaction ; it no donbt took place at a date long subsequent to 878, after Alfred had acquired a part of Mercia by conquest.

III. ON THE FAMILY OF HASTINGS. In p. 280 the author has identified the family of Hastings with that of Le Mareschal de Venoix. A different view has been taken in an elaborate paper on the Hastings Family (Archaeological Journal, vol. xxvi.), the general value of which the author desires to acknowledge. Its identification, however, of the house of Hastings with that of Mascarel appears to rest on an unsound inference. It is argued that because William, son of Robert, t. Henry II., and his son Ralph de Hastings, were possessed of estates formerly the property of the Mascarels, and because Alexander Mascarel is expressly stated to have been ' uncle ' of William, son of Robert, therefore Robert must have been a Mascarel, and brother of Alexander. But this does not follow : Robert may have married the sister of Alexander Mascarel, in which case the latter would be ' uncle ' of William FitzRobert J and such, no doubt, was the fact, for Robert was a Hastings, and is mentioned t. Henvy I. as 'De Venoix,' the latter being the Norman, and Hastings the English name of the family. It is needless to go into the

question of chronology, which appears to be also adverse to this theory. The author hopes, therefore, that he may be excused for not admitting the identity of the Mascarel and the Hastings families as proved.

7

THE NOEMAN PEOPLE.

CHAPTEE I. DISCOVERY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE NORMAN NOBILITY IN ENGLAND. The Normans were one of those few races of men whose extraordmary mental and physical energies have exercised a profound and enduring influence over the world. They were a race of the same class as the Greek, the Eoman, or the Saracen, whose actions fill the pages of history, and will remain engraved on the memory of man as long as humanity itself endures. Seven centuries have elapsed since the world has known the Normans in England under the form of a separate and distinct nationality. They have been for that space of time inextricably blended with other races in England, and the modern inhabitants of this country are unable to determine the early nationahty to which they individually owe their origin. Let it then be permitted to direct closer B .

2 THE NORJL^N PEOPLE attention to the Normans, as the most conspicuous amongst the early races of England, and in the first place to their character and exploits in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It is here proposed to quote the testimony of some of our most eminent historians in relation to the Norman character, because it possesses far more value and authority than any other evidence that might be collected from other sources, representing as it does the matured opinions of men perfectly conversant with the subject on which they have written, and whose testimony may be considered to be free from bias or prejudice. The first whose description of the Norman character deserves attention is Lord Macaulay, who was himself of Celtic origin.

' The Normans,' says Lord Macaulay, ' were then the foremost race of Christendom. Their valour and ferocity had made them conspicuous amongst the rovers whom Scandinavia had sent forth to ravage 'Western Europe . . . At length one of the feeble heirs of Charlemagne ceded to the strangers a fertile province ... In that province they founded a mighty state, which gradually extended its influence over the neighbouring principalities of Brittany and Maine. Without laying aside the dauntless valour which had been the terror of every land from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, tlie Normans rapidly acquired all, and more than all, the knowledge and refinement which they found in the country where they settled. Their courage secured their territory against foreign invasion.

I

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 3 They established internal order, such as had been long unknown in the Frank Empire. They embraced Christianity, and with Christianity they learned a great part of what the clergy had to teach. They abandoned their native speech and adopted the French tongue, in which the Latin was the predominant element. They speedily raised their new language to a dignity and importance which it had never possessed. They found it a barbarous jargon, they fixed it in writing, and they employed it in legislation, in poetry, and in romance. They renounced that brutal intemperance to which all the other branches of the great German family were too much inclined . . . That chivalrous spirit which has exercised so powerful an influence on the politics, the morals, and manners of the European nations was found in the highest exaltation amongst the Norman nobles. These nobles were distinguished by their graceful bearing and insinuating address. They were distinguished also by their skill in negotiation and by a natural eloquence, which they assiduously cultivated . . . But their chief fame was derived from their mihtary exploits. Every country, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Eed Sea, mtnessed the prodigies of their discipline and valour. One Norman knight, at the head of a handful of warriors, scattered the Celts of Connaught. Another founded the monarchy of the Two Sicilies, and saw the Emperors of the East and West fly before his arms. A thiixl, the Ulysses of the first Crusade, was invested by his fellow-soldiers with the sovereignty of B 2

4 THE NORMAN PEOPLE Antioch ; and a fourth, whose name hves in the great poem of Tasso, was celebrated throughout Christendom

as the bravest and most generous of the champions of the Holy Sepulchre.' ^ ' The Normans,' says Mr. Freeman, -' were the Saracens of Christendom, spreading themselves over every corner of the world, and appearing in almost every character . . . None knew better how to hold their own against pope and prelate : the especial children of the Church were as httle disposed to unconditional obedience as the most stiff-necked of Ghibihnes.' ' To free England,' he continues, ' the Norman gave a race of tyrants : to enslaved Sicily he gave a line of beneficent rulers. But to England he gave also a conquering nobility, which, in a few generations, became as truly English in England as it had become French in Normandy. If he overthrew our Harolds and our Waltheofs, he gave a Fitz- Walter and a Bigod to win back the rights for which Harold and Waltheof had fallen. . . . Art, under his auspices, produced alike the stern grandeur of Caen and Ely, and the brilhant gorgeousness of Palermo and Monreale. In a word, the indomitable vigour of the Scandinavian, joined to the buoyant vivacity of the Gaul, produced the conquering and ruhng race of Europe.' ^ The destinies of this imperial race are thus described by a great historian : ' Lord Macaulay, History of England, i. IL '^ Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, i. 170.

THE NOEIMAN PEOPLE 5 ' The Normans,' says Fronde, ' in occnpying both England and Ireland, were but fulhlling the work for which they were especially qualified and gifted. . , . They were born rulers of men, and were forced by the same necessity which has brought the decrepit kingdoms of Asia under the authority of England and Eussia to take the management, eight centmies ago, of the anarchic nations of Western Europe.'^ In contemplating the Norman race, then, which became seated in England in the eleventh centiury, we are to recognise in it one of the most extraordinary manifestations of human intellect and power that the history of the world affords ; and we are hence impelled at once to demand further details of the actual life and attendant conditions of a race so singular and remarkable. We are led to enquire, What was the real character and nature of the settlement of the Normans in England? Was it merely the migration of a small body of nobles? Was it, on the other hand, an immigration as truly national as that of the Saxons had been ? What was to be the destiny of this new race? Was it, hke some mere military aristocracies, predestined to speedy decay, and to ultimate extinction ? Was it to be irretrievably lost

amidst the masses of the nations whom it had subdued ? Was its empire to fall into the hands of an alien nationality ? Are those Norman laws, institutions, language, and national attributes, which in England and America bear ' proude, The English in Ireland, i. IG, 17.

6 THE NORMAN PEOPLE such potent testimony to a common origin, merely tlie memorials of a race that has long passed away, and to which the actual inhabitants of these countries bear as remote a relation as they do to the unknown races which fabricated stone implements or were contemporary with the mammoth ? Or is the reverse of this the truth ? Is the Norman race still living still presenting its essential characteristics still great, prosperous, progressive, and more than ever multitudinous ? Is it still producing new nations ? Is it stiU in the van of human progress, yet stiU advancing with firm, practical, deliberate, and mascuhne intelHgence ? Such are some of the questions which suggest themselves on perusing the narrative of the adventurous exploits of the Normans ; and they are questions which, with all the respect due to tlie eminent writers who have recorded those exploits, have not as yet received from them the attention to which their interest and their importance are entitled. Mr. Ereeman gives expression to the views most prevalent on this subject, ' The indomitable vigour of the Scandinavian, joined to the buoyant vivacity of the Gaul, produced the conquering and ruhng race of Europe. And yet that race, as a race, has vanished. It has everywhere been absorbed by the races which it had conquered.' ' In Old England,' continues the same accomplished writer, ' the Norman race has sunk beneath the influence of a race

THE NORL\N PEOPLE less brilliant, but more enduring than liis own. The Norman has vanished from the world, but he has indeed left a name behind ]iim.'^ So, too, Gibbon has said, 'The adventurous Normans who had raised so manytrophies in France, England and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East, were lost in victory or servitude among the vanquished nations.'^ These opinions are grounded on the phenomena which meet the eye and appear on the sm^face of society. Historians have not as yet sufficiently considered the Normans as a whole. They have adopted as their basis

chronicles and records which describe chiefly the actions of the higher classes, and whose allusions to the middle and lower classes are sHght and transient, and hence we find the ablest Enghsh historians at variance on questions of importance. To some the Norman settlement at the Conquest presents itself in the aspect of the migration of a few thousands of knights and nobles, while others recognise in it the immigration of Normans of all classes. Yet it is obviously of the greatest importance, in an historical point of view, to determine whether the Normans were an aristocracy or a nation. It is evident that a nation cannot be dealt with as if it were an aristocracy without risk of serious error ; and it may be said with deference that if our historians had from circumstances been enabled to devote more time and attention to leading questions of ^ Freemau, History of the Norman Conquest, i IGO, 170. ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vii. 145. Ed. 1855.

8 THE NORMAN PEOPLE this nature, their views of history might have been in some important respects modified. History throws very Httle hght on the fate of the Normans after the twelfth century. It does not enable us to resolve satisfactorily the problem of their later existence. It is not, in fact, conversant with those minuter and more detailed enquiries which would alone enable it to determine such questions of fact. From the twelfth century distinctions of race in England entirely disappear from the surface of history, and the continuance and position of the Norman race are merely subjects of conjecture. The desirableness of a fresh enquiry into the later condition of a race so renowned will perhaps be generally admitted. The uncertainty in which its fate remains involved subsequently to the twelfth century, and the contradictory opinions which prevail on the subject, will constitute a sufficient apology for an attempt to ascertain questions of fact. But the enquiry is siurrounded by difficulties so numerous that the reluctance of authors to venture upon it is easily to be accounted for. It demands a special study of subjects not particularly inviting an examination in detail of facts and circumstances apparently too trivial to claim notice, and yet so numerous as to demand sedulous apphcation, and a considerable expenditure of time. It may disturb opinions very generally received may create offence in many cases and may interfere witli the most clierished convictions of numerous

THE NORIklAN PEOPLE 9 families. And there has been also, till recently, a moral impossibility that almost any amount of leism'e could suffice

for the elucidation of these questions. They have only come within the reach of solution within the present generation. In the precedmg generation the materials for enquiry still remained almost inaccessible in manuscripts; and had not the present writer been enabled to refer to the Great Eolls of the Norman Exchequer in print, as edited by Mr. Stapleton for the Society of Antiquaries about thirty years since, and to realize the valuable results of that publication, by the aid of the Index which at a later period was compiled under direction of the Societe des Antiquaires de la Normandie, and which appears in their excellent edition of the same record, it would have been totally impossible to write the present work ; and even these materials, valuable as they are, would have been comparatively useless in the author's hands had he not, by the merest accident, brought the Exchequer KoUs of Normandy into juxtaposition with the EngHsh records of the twelfth century. The English and Norman records furnish, in truth, a singular and perhaps unique instance in Europe of the preservation and pubhcation of records of two different countries, of seven hundred years standing, relating to different branches of the same race, and so minutely detailed as to enable us to trace the identity of families, and even individuals, in two countries. Had we possessed either of these classes of records singly, without the other, it would

10 THE NORMAN PEOPLE have been impossible to trace the connexion of races ; and so remarkable is the light which they throw on each other, and on the race to which they relate, in its two divisions, that it may be said that in all probability there is no parallel instance in the world. Certainly there is nothing to correspond to it in the case of the Anglo-Saxon and Danish nationalities in England, for there are no records, either in Scandinavia, or in North Germany and Holland, which could throw light on the great masses of the English branches of their race. A statement of the circumstances in which the present enquiry originated may, ]3erhaps, be the most appropriate mode of conveying to the reader a general notion of the chain of reasoning which gradually resulted in the conclusions hereafter to be detailed. Some years since a relative expressed to the writer a wish that some of his leisure hours might be given to investigations on the origin of families in which they were mutually interested by descent. In compliance with that desire some attention was given to the subject in question ; and the writer very speedily discovered that the enquiry was not without its attendant difficulties. He found himself immersed in thorny questions of all descriptions, the age and authenticity of manuscripts and records, the precise chronology of events not noticed by ordinary history, the descent of estates and then- changes of denomi-

nation, the identity or diversity of contemporary individuals bearing the same name, the obsolete forms of

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 11 existing languages, the force and meaning of forgotten habits, usages, laws, and institutions, the changes in European geography and topography, the correct reading and interpretation of records relating to an order of things that has passed away. These investigations continued at intervals for years, and in their course famiharity with the sources of knowledge was gradually attained. At length the task was ended, and the results were the complete estabhshment of the fact that certain families, supposed to be English, were originally Norman, the recovery of their original Norman names after a disuse of six centiu-ies, and with those names the recovery of their early history, both in Normandy and England, and the overset of sundry received heraldic pedigrees. The particular cases which led to these results could only be interesting to a very limited circle, but the results themselves appeared to deserve more attentive consideration. When they were carefully studied it was perceived that there must be in England many famihes which, under Enghsh surnames, preserve a Norman descent. It was concluded, further, that the same system of enquiry which had been found successful in some cases might prove equally successful in others ; that additional discoveries might be anticipated ; and that this result might be attained with comparative facility in consequence of the experience which had been gained. Cm^iosity being excited, it was resolved to make an excursion into the

12 THE NORMAN PEOPLE terra incognita^ not perhaps without some faint spark of the same interest which led the adventurer of old to launch forth on voyages of discovery. All that now remained to be done was to choose the point from which investigation should commence. The first selection (as is often the case in new undertakings) proved a failure, and operated as a discouragement. It was attempted to trace the descendants of the Barons of the Conqueror mentioned in Domesday Book ; but, after great and not altogether unfi^uitful research, it was at length realised that families may be traced upwards, but can scarcely be traced downwards, and the attempt had to be abandoned. This failure, however, did not in any degree affect the principles which had been previously established by experiment. They continued intact. It only remained,

therefore, to adopt another field of enquiry. The subject Avhich was chosen was the origin of the peerage famihes of the kingdom, amounting to from 500 to G'^'O. The extent and tlie importance of this undertaking rendered it a matter of indispensable necessity that a prehminary survey of the records should be taken, and a critical and historical apparatus be provided, commensurate with the magnitude of the work, and affording facihty for prompt reference at every point of the enquiry. The author accordingly employed several months in the collection and alphabetical arrangement of all facts of importance regarding Norman and native English families.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 13 possessed of land in England from the Conquest to the fourteenth century. The Monasticon Anglicanum^ Domesday Book, the Liber Niger, the Testa de Neville, and other works published under the auspices of the Eecord Commissioners and the Government, the Gallia Christiana, the publications of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, the works of Des Bois and Anselme, and many others, furnished tens of thousands of facts regarding the early landed aristocracy of England. On the completion of this apparatus the author found himself in the possession of details regarding more than 3,000 different AngloNorman families, the ancient lords of the soil in this country. These families usually consisted of several branches, and were widely disseminated in all parts of the kingdom ; and their succession remained uninterruptedly from the Conquest to the fourteenth century. Could the author place the details before the reader, nothing more would be requisite to demonstrate the long continuance of the N rman landed aristocracy. It may be here observed that the longest hst of the companions of the Conqueror ever published the Battle Abbey Eoll includes not much more than 600 names of Norman famiHes. The list as now collected from the records exceeded 3,000, or was five times the length of the Battle Abbey Roll ; and long as it was, was not perfect. The Battle Abbey Roll mentions a certain part of the Norman aristocracv which was existing? in the time

14 THE NORMAN PEOPLE of Edward L, but its compiler was ''not in a position to enumerate all the families then extant.-^ Thus provided with a tolerably ample critical apparatus, the author proceeded to undertake the enquiry into the origin of the peerage families of the kingdom. That task involved in the first place the examination of the earher parts of all the pedigrees which had been accumulating since the sixteenth century, and which had been detailed,

and watered down, and abridged in the various works on the peerage. In many cases these pedigrees were of very limited extent ; the heralds or others, their compilers, apparently being of opinion, that when any family was so fortunate as to descend from an alderman or a lord-mayor that dignified origin precluded all necessity for further investigation. Even a Turkey merchant, a goldsmith, or an iron manufacturer appeared to satiate the appetite for ancestry ; and descent from these honoured personages was sufficient to establish the superfluousness of all remoter history. But so different are tastes, that in other cases families were desirous of attaining the honours of long descent, and the heralds and genealogists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries accordingly were set to work to provide pedigrees. Generally speaking, these documents may be regarded ^ This document, from the Norman-French orthography of its names, and the families whicli it introduces, cannot be earlier than the time of Edward I. The orthography is that of other documents of that period. Its existence from the Conquest at Battle Abbey is a mere myth, depending on the authority of some unknown herald of the sixteenth century.

THE NORMAN PEOPI,E 15 as ftiirly authentic in their aGcount of famihes as far back as the fourteenth centmy ; but when they touch on remoter times they require to be viewed with a discriminative eye. The genealogical history of England fi^om the eleventh to the fourteenth century was (except in the case of some very remarkable families) a terra incognita to the mass of the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to whom the existing pedigrees are due. The consequences may be anticipated. The author, being aware of the facts of the case generally, felt satisfied that in examining the earlier parts of the received pedigrees nothing ought to be accepted on the mere authority of the heralds or genealogists of the sixteenth or seventeenth century, or of the pedigrees then compiled. The statements were in all cases deserving of consideration ; but they required to be supported by evidence. They were therefore submitted throughout to the test of record and fact. They were examined with the aid of common sense, history, chronology, armorial bearings, public or private records, and with a due regard to the laws of probability and fair historical inference. By pursuing this course throughout, wherever it was apphcable, the earlier English pedigrees became to a large extent disintegrated and dissolved. Mistakes and fabrications came to hght; blunders, impossibilities, and absurdities were strewn around. The older English pedigrees were thus materially affected ; while the Welsh, Irish, and Scottish pedigrees of Celtic families were almost untouched, simply because the

16 THE NORMAN PEOPLE

absence of records in a great degree precluded the possibility either of accepting or rejecting them. They remained in doubt. ^ The ground having been thus cleared from the rubbish wliich had been permitted to accumulate, the work of reconstruction of the older pedigrees, and of the completion of the more recent pedigrees, commenced. A close examination was immediately instituted into the earhest authentic accounts which we possess of the ancestors of each family. The ascertained facts were compared in each case with contemporary history and the records. At the proper point tlie extensive collections regarding the early aristocracy of England which had been formed came into play, and proved to be of incalculable utility. The course of proceeding was regulated throughout on that which had already been found successful principles and rules established by practice were systematically carried out. Family after family was traced historically to the Conquest and beyond it ; they were reinvested with their early names, once famous in ^ It is not here intended to make any general or sweeping assertion. There are instances in which Celtic pedigrees ran be historically traced j and when it is possible to do so, there is no class of descent in the kingdom which is of deeper interest. This only causes the more regret that the materials for enquiry are so scanty. Why are not the ancient manuscripts which contain the original Irish pedigrees of the eleventh or twelfth century properly edited ? And why does Wales retain in manuscript works of a similar nature dating from the fifteenth century or earlier ? Why are not the monastic chartuhiries of Wales, and Cornwall, and Ireland published in detail ? In the absence of these essential materials it is impossible to attempt the authentication or elucidation (except in very rare instances) of the Celtic family history of the kingdom.

THE NOEMAN PEOPLE 17 history and in song. Tlie progress made warranted tlie expectation that results of importance might be anticipated. It is desirable to pause for a moment, and to consider the results as they actually came out in the end. The popular peerages ascribe (more or less dubiously) a Norman origin to a score or two of peerage families. In many cases that origin is apocryphal or erroneous ; it may be doubted whether a dozen families in the peerages are correctly identified in these works as Norman. The great mass of peerage families are not traced to any particular nationality ; but from the circumstance of their being generally endowed with brief pedigrees the impression is left that they have sprung from the masses ; and as the latter are (according to received opinion) Anglo-Saxon, the natural inference is that the body of the peerage is also of that race. Hence we have heard noble lords disclaiming for the House of Lords any descent from the Norman invaders of England ; and it would appear

that at present Anglo-Saxon descent is in especial favour, and that the peers themselves are anxious to claim it wherever practicable, for there are even many noble famihes which announce themselves as Anglo-Saxon without the sli2;htest right to that distinction, such as it is. Such being the popular view of peerage famihes, let it be permitted for a moment to contrast it with the state of things as disclosed by an unbiassed and independent inquiry. The peerage families which formed the subject of this *0

18 THE NORMAN PEOPLE inquiry corresponded to the number of peers, about 550 in number,^ Of these about twenty were ascertained to be foreign famihes naturahzed in England within the last three centuries. Eighty, or thereabouts, were found to be Celtic famihes from Wales, Scotland, and L^eland. Twenty (about) were determined to be AngloSaxon and Danish. About 110 (many from Scotland), though in most cases ancient, could not be assigned to any particular nationahty, but were doubtless either Norman, Danish, Saxon, or Celtic. The remainder, being about 320, were ascertained to be Norman. As it may be inferred with probability that the families of unascertained races (about 110) belonged to some of these native races, and might be divided amongst them, in proportion to their respective numbers, it seemed that on this principle the Norman limb of the peerage would rise to 400 out of 550, the Anglo-Saxon and Danish peerage rising at the same time to the number of twenty-five, so that the Norman would be to the Anglo-Saxon and Danish peerage as about sixteen to one. Facts like these are not altogether without importance. It has been thought advisable to disclaim for the House of Lords any connection with the old feudal and Norman aristocracy : popular ethnological theories no doubt are in harmony with that view. If, however, as a matter of fact, the peerage of England is not Anglo-Saxon, but ^ The number of distinct families was less, as some families are represented by more than one peer.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 19 almost entirely Norman, and if tlie Scottish, Irish, and Welsh peerage only help to lessen the Norman majority by adding Celts, we must make the best we can of the circumstance. As far as it appears, the Normans have at least as

much preponderance in the peerage at the present moment as they had in the time of William the Conqueror and in the following century. The proportions remain nearly the same. And it may here be added that, contrary to what we might have supposed, it is rather in the peerages of modern creation than in those of ancient standing that we find the lineal male descendants of the early baronage. If we were asked to point out those families which are of the highest Norman descent, and whose past is most identified with the history of England, we should have to pass over many of the oldest peerages now existing, and to turn to famihes which have been considered to be of modern and inferior origin. It is, however, a fact deserving of notice that so great a proportion of the peerage appears to be of Norman blood, and that this observation especially applies to peerages of modern date. On this some remarks will presently be offered. Thierry, in his history of the Conquest, has endeavoured to throw contempt on the Anglo-Norman baronage of the Conquest, on the ground that it had in general sprung from the lowest classes in Normandy a mode of disparagement wliich in the mouth of so strong an opponent

20 THE NORIMAN PEOPLE of the aristocratic principle seems peculiarly inconsistent, as it involves those very distinctions of race which are most objected to. Few will be inclined, in the present day, to deny that, if obscimty of birth formed no obstacle amongst the Normans to the reward of public services and distinguished merit, it only proves their superior enhghtenment ; nor is it a matter of much importance to refute the imputations of Thierry on the lineage of the Norman baronage. As simple matter of fact, however, such imputations are unfounded. As a whole, the native Norman nobihty who were transferred in a body to England were not inferior in birth to those of any country in Europe. The greater barons, as well as the Conqueror himself, were known in the eleventh century to be of Norwegian blood. They were of princely birth, representatives of the dispossessed royal famihes of the twenty-two ancient kingdoms of Norway, who had been deprived of their dominions by the conquests of Harold Harfager. In addition to this, many of the most illustrious Gothic and Frank houses joined in the invasion, and their descendants in many cases have remained in England. In fact, if we look for the descendants of the early kings of the North, and tlie Merovingian barons of France, they will be found at present amongst the Norman people of England and America. But it is time to revert to the subject of the existing peerage families of England. Great numbers of these families have risen from the middle classes, by commerce,

I

TIIE NOR^IAN PEOPLE 21 trade, professions, and successful marriages. Now these Normans of the peerage do not seem, as far as can be noticed, to have had any special advantages in the way of hereditary position and wealth over the Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Celtic families ; yet in the race of Hfe they have completely distanced them. How is this ? Why is it that the peerage of England, which is continually recruited from the middle and lower classes, nevertheless remains essentially Norman, and not only Norman, but in a great degree hneally descended from the Norman nobility of the Conquest ? The Norman famihes of the peerage will be found noticed in detail in the alphabetical portion of this work under their respective family names. Taken as a class they present another illustration, in addition to the many which akeady exist, of the long continuance of English society and English institutions. That continuity has been well and eloquently impressed upon us by great living historians. It meets us in a thousand forms in material fabrics, manners, laws, language, and territorial denominations. The peerage families are, as a class, another evidence of continuity. The same Norman nobility which surrounded the throne of tlie Conqueror, continues, in its remote posterity, to occupy the same place in the reign of the Conqueror's latest descendant, our present Sovereign continues to occupy its baronial place in parliament continues to preside on the judicial bench continues to lead our armies and navies in battle,

22 THE NOEMAN PEOPLE and continues generally to control and to direct the affairs of the English empire. It would be easy to adduce many cases of this description, to enumerate the male representatives of Bigods, De Toesnis, Beauchamps, De Clares, Tankervilles, Braoses, Montfichets, and many others whose names of pride and power once filled the trumpet of fame, and whose posterity still remain seated amidst the peers of England. But a theme on which history and poetry might love to dwell must not here distract attention from our immediate subject. As it has been already observed, the Norman families of the peerage will be found mentioned in the alphabetical series of this work, under their present names. On the completion of this extensive undertaking (the origin of the ]3eerage families of the kingdom), the author still remained unsatisfied. Others might, perhaps,

have supposed that the subject had been pushed sufficiently in advance ; but the author could not help feeling distrust in his own conclusions, notwithstanding the care and diligence of his inquiries. He was unable to comprehend the vast disparity in point of numbers between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxon or Danish families in the peerage. However, he resolved to extend the range of the inquiry, and accordingly proceeded to examine numbers of the older families amongst the baronets, many of the older families of landed gentry, and many other families which were no longer in

THE NOET^LVN PEOPLE 23 possession of their ancient patrimonies. He discovered in the course of these inquiries the descendants of early baronial families which had no representatives in the peerage, as well as others which occur there. AngloSaxon or Danish families he very rarely encountered. In some cases he failed to ascertain the national origin of families ; but wherever he was enabled to determine that origin it was usually Norman. The Normans were in a great majority; the Anglo-Saxons "and Danes in an insignificant minority. Numerous instances of the results of these inquiries will present themselves in the alphabetical series of names. The author was next brought into contact with a new class of English families, taken indiscriminately from all ranks. He was led by circumstances to investigate the origin of many of the leading names in English history; the great captains, statesmen, poets, pliilosophers, jurists, divines, men of science, mechanists, inventors, merchant princes, and others who have gained celebrity in the national annals. That inquiry was laborious, and its length compelled the author eventually to desist from its prosecution. But so far as it proceeded, the facts elicited entirely corresponded with those brought out by preceding inquiries. The ancestry of the intellectual aristocracy of England was generally Norman. The Anglo-Saxon and the Dane were in a hopeless minority ; they were considerably outnumbered by the Celt. The Normans far exceeded in number the whole of the other races put together.

24 THE NOEMAN PEOPLE A question at length here presented itself Has race anything to do with mental capacity ? The author does not pretend to deal with that question ; but few, he apprehends, will deny the descent of national characteristics to a considerable extent, and the remarkable preponderance of the Normans amongst the most eminent names in Enghsh history seems to show that they are an instance of the transmission of hereditary inteUigence. The Normans were certainly the most practically intel-

ligent and energetic race of their age. Their descendants would seem to have inherited those high qualities ; and if it be so, their success in life is sufficiently accounted for, and it might even be conjectured that under other circumstances even if society should break loose from its old moorings and go to pieces the Normans would still be found in the ascendant. And (as it were to supply food for thought) even now, agricultural labourers and coal-miners cannot combine for objects which demand the exercise of practical abihty without finding themselves led by those who, though in humble stations, bear names of undoubted Norman origin.^ The author feels himself under a disadvantage in being precluded, by the extent of the evidence on which

' * Arch ' (Avlience Thorpe- Arch in Yorkshire) is derived from De Arches, or De Arques, Viscounts of Arques and Ptoiipn. See Aech, and Sayille in the alphabetical list. ' Normansell ' is a corruption of Normanville, the elder branch of the Bassets, barons of Normanville in the Caux. See NoRMANYiLLK- foimorly a groat Yorkshire family.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 25 he states these facts, from producing examples which would strengthen his position. He can only refer to the alphabetical series of N"orman names which forms the bulk of this work. It would embarrass his argument to adduce here hundreds of instances in proof of what he has stated. Nor can it be pretended that the inquiries which have been instituted have done more than open the subject. They have touched on a very small part of it. The labour of three lives would scarcely suffice to carry out the inquiry completely. There are great numbers of noble Norman houses whose existing descendants have not yet been discovered ; vast numbers of others which involve mysteries which may in many cases be inscrutable, and in most would reqime much expenditure of time and labour to elucidate. Nevertheless, the inquiries of the author, imperfect as they are, and limited as their range may be, will go far to establisb the fact that the Norman nobility continues to exist as a whole in England at this day, and that it is still amply represented in the male line that, in short, if the Normans (as some think) were merely an aristocracy, that aristocracy exists in vastly increased numbers at the present hour. The result of the inquiry so far satisfied the author that the identification of the whole Norman aristocracy, as still existing in England, was simply a question of time ; but at this point the inquiry assumed a new shape, which requires consideration in a separate chapter.

26 THE NORMAN PEOPLE

CHAPTEE II. DISCOVERY OF THE DESCENDAXTS OF THE NORMAN COMMONALTY IN ENGLAND. It has been already noticed that the collections which had been formed disclosed the existence of above 3,000 different families of Norman nobility in England, which had become seated here at the Conquest. The inquiries which had subsequently been instituted had showed that several hundred of these families were still in existence, bearing either their original surnames, or English names adopted in lieu thereof at a remote period. It became necessary, however, at length, to consider the rate of progress which had been attained, and the chance that it would be possible to bring the inquiry to any satisfactory conclusion. On a survey of progress made, it appeared that the course hitherto adopted (namely that of tracing individual families to their origin), however satisfactory in itself, involved so great an expenditure of time that the advance made was necessarily but slow. It is true that in some cases it was a matter of facility to connect existing families -with their Norman or Saxon ancestors, thanks to the extensive collections above referred to.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 27 But frequently it would require days or weeks to arrive at the desired identification of a single family. Sometimes every English record and every memorial of local history might be searched in vain, until the inquiry in that particular case had to be abandoned as hopeless, and so to remain until, perhaps months afterwards, the information long sought for in vain would accidentally occur in some foreign charter, or elsewhere, where least expected. In many cases, too, where success was at last attained, it was only the result of inquiries of a laborious and complicated nature. It had been necessary, perhaps, to investigate throughout a long series of records the descent and inheritance of family estates ; to trace them through changes of orthography and of denomination of a perplexing nature ; to examine the history of the various families which had possessed those estates ; and to inquire into the earliest forms of the armorial bearings of those famihes. It had perhaps been found impossible to obtain sufficient information on these points. It had become necessary to examine wholesale the history and the armorial bearings of all families within extensive districts, and thence to gather remote hints leading to the requisite clue. However interesting might be the attempt to solve the difficulties which presented themselves in these inquiries, it became evident that to identify even a few hundred families would demand a serious expenditure of time that it would be hopeless to expect, within any definable

period, the complete identification of all the early Norman

28 THE NOIIMAN PEOPLE families still extant. Yet it seemed to be undesirable to leave the inquiry altogether unfinished when results so interesting and so satisfactory had been attained in its progress. It therefore became necessary to consider whether any mode of inquiry was practicable by which, without abandoning the historical character of the investigation, a material abridgment of the time consumed in it might be effected. It was at this crisis of the inquiry that a mode of proceeding presented itself which will be presently explained. When we seek for remains of antiquity in London there is no necessity to make a pilgrimage to Westminster Abbey or the Tower, or to inspect the treasures of the British Museum, or the Eecord Office. Monuments of equal, or of greater, though unrecognised, antiquity present themselves on every side. The historian or the archa30logist need only lift up his eyes and peruse the names which present themselves on shops and warehouses, and on the carts and waggons that roll by. Those names are strangely suggestive to one who is familiar with English history. Their present position tells of strange revolutions in past times. Those names seem to assort but ill with their present places. They once belonged to the mighty nobles and chiefs who conquered England, and whose descendants were renowned in Palestine and France. Those names are now borne by the merchant, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the labourer. Whence come these memorials of the eleventh cen-

THE NORJ^LIN PEOPLE 29 tury, these resurrections of what was once so famous in liistory, these names of the past, formerly smTOunded. by all the attributes of splendoiu', and power, and chivalry, and almost kingly dominion ? Are we to suppose those names to be mere impostures, fraudulent assumptions, forgeries? Or are tliey not, rather, silent witnesses of the vast changes which time introduces into society ? It was not the custom in England to change hereditary siurnames without necessity, and from mere fancy or caprice. Nor is there any record in England of the system of clan names by wliich in Scotland and Ireland the adherents of the patriarchal chieftains distinguished themselves. Clans did not exist in this country, and the adherents of the barons did not adopt the names of their feudal suzerains. The surnames of England have descended lineally in families from remote ages ; and those which are found in the middle and lower classes, and which originally belonged to illustrious houses, are, with very few exceptions, beyond doubt genuine. The writer expresses

tliis opinion after careful and lengthened inquiry, and is entirely satisfied that these names have not been adopted in modern times ; for the families from which they are derived have been so long forgotten that nothing would have been gained by the assumption of their names. And besides this, a person who wished to obtain the credit of belongino- to one of those ancient stocks would at least have been careful, in adopting the name, to preserve its correct orthography ; whereas the mass of these old

30 THE NORMAN PEOPLE names occur in corrupt forms, and under every conceivable variation of spelling, which clearly indicates the undesigned nature of the changes themselves, and the remoteness of an origin which, in the course of time, had been the source of so many variations. Setting aside, therefore, any objection to the genuineness of these masses of ancient names as altogether unfounded, we may consider the real causes of the position which they occupy in the middle, and even in the labouring classes. The decadence of ancient and the rise of new famihes in England are facts which are well known, and which are evidenced by what is daily passing before our eyes. There is a perpetual ebb and flow in the fortunes of famiUes; and more especially has this been the case for the last three centuries and a half, when the old feudal institutions, which rendered the transfer of estates difiicult, and which impeded the creation of large rentals, have come to an end. Landed property has long ceased to be destined to the maintenance of a great national army : it has become an article of commerce has been thrown open to the monied classes ^has become capable of being treated as a source of pecuniary profit. The ancient Norman landholder lived -without the aids and appliances of modern luxury. His grandeur consisted, not in the length of his rent-roll, the brilliancy of his equipages, or the beauty of liis palaces and parks, but in the strength of his fortresses, and the numbers of armed and disciplined retainers and feudal tenants who followed liis standard. His splendom: con-

THE NOftMAN PEOPLE 31 sisted in his power. All tliis lias long since passed away, and land, from the middle of the sixteenth century, began to fall into the position of other marketable property. The result was that, as commercial enterprise created wealth, the old landed aristocracy was gradually replaced by new famihes. K we compare the landed proprietary of any one county in the present day with the hsts of its gentry in the reign of Elizabeth, it would seem at first sight as if the whole of the old proprietary had died out. Eare indeed are the cases in which the same estates have descended in the same name for three centuries. Mr. Shuiey, in his

interesting work on the ' Gentle and Noble ' families of England who have held their estates from a.d. 1500 and previously, is unable to enumerate more than about four hundred altogether, including peers, baronets, and landed gentry a mere insignificant fraction of the landowners of England. The mass of the old proprietors have either died out or transferred their estates by heiresses to new famihes ; or they have migrated to other parts of England, to Ireland, to Scotland, or to the colonies. Numbers have taken up their abode in America, and their descendants remain there at the present day. They have in the majority of cases ceased to be possessed of landed property, and have engaged in commercial or industrial employments. In former ages, as now, professions and trade were frequently the resource of the younger sons of good famihes, for the family estate passing to the elder son, the junior branches had to seek their own fortunes Nor were their

32 THE NORMAN PEOPLE undertakings always fortunate : branches of aristocratic families gradually fell lower in tlie world, and became impoverished. The leading branches of these famihes, whose importance in some degree upheld the position of these remote kinsmen, gradually died out; the estates passed away by heiresses to new famihes, or were lost by extravagance, misfortunes, and embarrassments ; the old names were forgotten by the world ; the scions of these ancient famihes fell lower and lower, till, in some cases, at length nothing remained to them except family names, of whose ancient importance they were no longer conscious. All traces of their descent had been lost and obhterated ; and when rising once more to renewed prosperity, after the lapse of ages, they rose as new families, without antecedents, and without ancestry. Such have been the variations of society in England, where, notwithstanding an unparalleled stability of institutions, everything is, hke the ocean, in a state of perpetual flux and reflux, the old disappearing before the new, and the new superseded in its turn by the old the nobihty, the gentry, the middle classes, and the lower, gradually chan Dannemore Sweden Gidea ft Gidea

Sweden Easthorpe Ustrup Denmark Hadham >> Aadam Denmark Eoding >> Rodding Denmark Booking jj Bucking Denmark Halstead Ollestad

Norway

^ The Northmen also introduced Scandinavian local names in Neustria, though far more sparingly than in England. Yaloines from Vallinge, Vesci from Gessie, Tuit from Tveta, Torp from Torpa, Douvres from Dover, are Swedish ; Arel from Arle, Goer from Goher, are Danish ; and Houlme from Holme, Norwegian.

108

THE NOEIVL\N PEOPLE

Middlesex Kingsbury Hidland Netting Bow from Kingsbro Hightband Notting Baw Sweden Sweden Denmark Denmark

Harrow )> Hanrow Denmark

Hertford Bucks Tewing Soulsbury Horwood 5> Tying Solvitsborg Horred Sweden Sweden Sweden

Burnham Borstall

Bjornholm Borstel Sweden Denmark Oxford Mey or Geflej Handborough

Gefle or Yeffle Hundborg Sweden Denmark Gloucester

Worcester Adderbury Burderop Hatberop Dodderhill

Haddeburg Burdrup Haderup Dodderbull Denmark Denmark Denmark Sweden NORTHAMPTOIS Salwarp r Ashby Wadenhoe

Skiwarp Asby VVadho Sweden Sweden Sweden Bedford Astrop Hill 5J Astorp Hille Sweden

Sweden Huntingdon Somersbam Cirabrisbamn Sweden Cambridge Elm >l Helium Denmark Suffolk Laybam Bergbolt

Laybolm Biorkshult Sweden Sweden

Sotterley Sodertelge

Sweden

Giselbam J> Grisselhamm Sweden

Dalham Dalbem Sweden

Sudbury "Worsted

Soodberg Gierestad Denmark Denmark

Bealing )) Balinge Sweden

Norfolk Ingoldstborpe Maltby Sail

Ingatorp Mallby Sala Sweden Sweden Sweden

Rising Gissing Oxburgh

Risinge Gissling Oxberg Sweden Sweden Sweden

Gresbam )) Gresholm

Denmark

1 The Northman origin of this name is a fact of importance, because it shows that down to the very banks of the Thames the Northmen had settlements.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE

109

'J^ORFOLK VV estwicli from Vestervig Denmark

Hilborough >> Hulgeberg Denmark

Ashill Osle Denmark

Northwold >? Northald Denmark

Brnmstead n Bramsted Denmark

Keling >j Kelling Norway Lincoln Aby }} Aby Sweden

Holland > Oland Sweden

Fleet j> Flata Sweden

Westborougli n Ovistbro Sweden

Gounerby j> Gunilbo Sweden

Sutterby j>

Soderby Sweden

Gunby Gunneby Sweden

Orby Harby Sweden

Axholm Oxholm Denmark

Strubby >> Strautby

Denmark

Silkwillougbby Silke Denmark

Willoughby ?> VVilbe Denmark

Lound j Lunde Denmark Nottingham Hickling Hicklinge Sweden

Hareby j> Arby Sweden

Stokebam >> Stockholm Sweden

Granby Granbyn Sweden Leicester Dalby Dalby Sweden

Hoby

Hoby Sweden

Stonsby Stensbek Denmark

Oadby ) Otby Denmark Stafford Haracles Harakra Sweden

Harwood

Horred Sweden

Eowley Rulley Sweden Stubby >> Stiby Sweden

Talk j> Tolck Denmark Salop Barrow Baro

Sweden

Ness Nees Norway Chester Hassall J> Hassla Sweden

Norley Nortelge Sweden Derby Thorpe Torp Sweden

Foremark > Forsmark Sweden

Tunstead >J Tonstad Norway Lancashire : Wray > Vra Sweden

10

THE NORMAN PEOPLE

Lancashire Holm

from Holm Norway

Urs'wick jj Erwick Sweden

Holker j> Hulcker Denmark

Hale ;> Hale Denmark

Bigland By gland

Norway Yorkshire Risby Ryssby Sweden

Aske Aske Sweden

Moulthorp Moltorp Sweden

Howdon >> Huddunge Sweden

Wike }> Wikes Sweden

Lowthorp j> Loderup Sweden

Byland j> Bielland Norway

Howland Hovland Norway

Lee Lie Norway

Selby Seby Denmark

Nelthorpe Nilstrup Denmark

Elland )? eland Denmark

Whitby JJ

Witb(4 Denmark

Hallam ?j Allum Denmark

Bowling JJ Boiling Denmark Durham Westwick JJ Westervick Sweden

Raby JJ Raby

Sweden

Newbiggen JJ Nebiggen Sweden Northumber Eland JJ Halaud Sweden land Shaftoe Skafto Sweden

Rock JJ Roke

Sweden Berwick Hutton JJ Hutten Denmark Cumberland Ousby JJ Ousby Sweden

Holme JJ Holme Sweden

Gamelsby JJ Gamelby Sweden

Westmoreland Swindall JJ Svindal Norway Scotland Edsell }j Edsele Sweden

Turing JJ Turinge Sweden

Monkland JJ Mokland Norway

Nithsdale

JJ Nissedal Norway . Gordon JJ Gording Denmark

This list lias been compiled after a brief and cursory examination of the Scandinavian names of localities ; and

THE NORI^IAN PEOPLE 111 there can be little doubt that if the enquiry were followed out, considerable hght would be thrown on the Danish settlements in England ; but the author has not either time or space to do more. It must be borne in mind that the diversity of orthography has arisen from time. The principal object of introducing the hst has been to show, not only the wide diffusion of the Danes over England, and to confirm the fact of their occupying the whole territory to the north of the Thames, but also the fact that, although usually styled ' Daci ' or ' Dani,' they might be (as they sometimes were) with more propriety entitled I^forthmen or Normans, being composed, as the Neustrian Normans were, of nations from different parts of the north. The comparison of Enghsh with Scandinavian names of locahties would require for its development a special study. It would involve the examination of Scandinavian geography and topography in then- earhest authentic sources, and a comparison of the names of locahties with their counterparts in the early English charters, and in Domesday Book. It would hold out, however, to the Scandinavian arch^ologist almost a greater reward than to the English ; for it would probably enable him to restore, to a considerable extent, the topography of Scandinavia in the ninth century, since every local name, identified both in England and Scandinavia, would

furnish a proof (and in most cases a unique proof) of the existence before 870 of the present towns and villages of

112 THE NOEMAN PEOPLE Sweden, Denmark, and Norway a date so remote that even the general history of those countries is at tliat time involved in obscurity. To establish the continuance of the Danish race in England no weightier authority than that of Sir Francis Palgrave can be cited. His profound knowledge of Enghsh history and of the English records entitles his opinion on such a question to the highest consideration. 'The distinctive energy of the Scandinavian races has continued in full vigour amongst us, and still remains unexhausted. No country testifies to the potent influence of Scandinavian blood more than our own. However mingled our population, each emigrant ship steaming from our shores bears away a large proportion of passengers who may claim real Danish ancestry. Many are the Danish Havelocks in our ranks, undistinguished by that heroic name.'^ The author regrets that the object and purpose of this work precludes him from entering on the subject of Danish families now existing. It would be easy to name some whose Danish origin is httle suspected, and whose history is of surpassing interest; but space forbids any attempt to do justice to the theme ; and Danish ftimilies, collectively, have not been included in the author's enquiries so far. It must, however, be here added, that to identify the Danish families of England would be a far more difficult ' Palgrave, History of Normandy and England, iii. 139.

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 113 task than that of recovering the Norman famihes. The reason is, that in the case of the Danes of England we have no means of instituting a comparison such as we have in the case of the Normans. Family siu-names did not exist in England before the Conquest, nor in Scandinavia ; consequently, the surnames of the Danes of England cannot be traced in Scandinavia ; and there are no records in England of an earher date than the Conquest, or coeval with it, which could in any degree supply the materials for investigation which are provided in the case of the Normans by the Exchequer EoUs of Normandy, and the contemporary records of England.

114

CHAPTEE VII. GOTHIC OKIGIN OF THE NOEMANS, DANES, AND ANGLOSAXONS. PRESENT DIFFUSION AND NUMBERS OF THE GOTHIC RACE. We now come to a different branch of the subject England was inhabited by the three races of AngloSaxons, Danes, and Normans, and those three races have for seven centuries become blended into one, long known as the Enghsh race. We have seen the error of the supposition that either of those races has become extinct, though all three have abandoned their original names for one that is common to them all. We have now to consider the original relations of these three races before their migration to England, and more especially in connection with the origin of the Normans. What, we ask with natural interest, was the origin of tliis mighty race, on which history cannot dwell without rising to the level of poetry ? Whence came these giants of the Middle Ages these rivals of the Saracen, the Roman, and the Macedonian Conquerors ? Their forefathers had, in the ninth century, issued forth from Scandinavia to conquer new homes for themselves in the south ; to obtain an asylum for that deeply-

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 115 cherislied freedom which northern revohitions had endangered. Like the pilgrim fathers of New England, they had traversed the ocean to preserve their hberties. A branch of them had, with the same object, migrated to Iceland, where they had established a floiurishing aristocratic republic, one of the earliest in Eiu-ope. The internal wars of its kindred Gothic nations, the severity of its inhospitable chmate, and the sterihty of its frozen soil, had gradually created in Scandinavia a maritime population of unrivalled enterprise, vigour, and courage. Honoiu" was awarded to bravery alone ; the Scandinavian maid disdained the addresses of the man who had not won fame in battle : a peaceful death was considered to be a deep disgrace, and rather than endure it the Northman precipitated himself from a chff' into the surge beneath. If he was made a prisoner, he preferred death to submission; the proud heart broke; or the captive dashed himself to pieces against the walls of his prison. These heathens, whose stern heroism recalls that of the Spartans or the early Eomans, were the progenitors of the Normans. And whence, it may be asked, did these nations of the north the lineal forefathers of the Normans derive their origin ? Were they indigenous to that soil, and had

their abode there been without commencement? The evidence afforded by language and institutions shows that they had formed part of a great family of nations the Goths or Getae ; that they were the advanced guard, or I 2

116 THE NORMAN PEOPLE the remotest branch of a race which had extended itself to the shores of the Northern Ocean from the steppes of Central Asia. The Getae or Goths^ are first heard of in the East, where one of their branches, the Massa-Getae, in the seventh century B.C., expelled the Scythians from their territories, and in the sixth, defeated and slew Cyrus king of the Persians and his army.^ This great nation, which was so jealous of its hberties and able so potently to maintain them, was seated in the neighbourhood of the Sea of Aral, and in those territories which now intervene between the dominions of England and of Eussia. The Sacae or Saxones,^ and Dahae or Daci, were neighbouring 1 Rawlinson, in liis edition of Herodotus (iii. 84), says : ' The identity of the Getae -with the Goths of later times is more than a plausible conjecture. It may be regarded as historically certain. Moreover, the compounds MassaGetae, Thyssa-Getae, Tyri-Getae, have a striking analogy to the later name of Visi-Goths, and Ostro-Goths.' On Herod., v. 219, he observes, ' It is almost certain that the Getae one of the principal Thracian tribes, according to Herodotus are the Gothi or Gothones of the Romans, who are the old German Guthai or Guthoues, and are Goths (see Grimm's Geschichte der Deutscheusprache, vol. i. pp. 178-184). The one name superseded the other in the same country, and there are not wanting ancient writers who expressly identify the two forms (Philostorgius, Hist. Eccl., ii. 5 ; Ennodius, p. 52, etc.). Grimm has shown that the change from Tsrtjg to Goth is according to the analogy of the Teutonic and Grieco-Roman form of speech.' Donaldson (Varronianus, 3rd ed. p. 51) speaks of 'the Getae, whether called by this name, or designated as Goths, Guddas, Jutes, and Vites.' The Jutes or Goths in England were styled ' Geata ' or * Getae.' King Alfred's translation of ' Jutis ' in Bede, i. 15, is ' Geatum ' and ' Geata.' As ser ' looked on the Jutes and Goths as the same people,' says Mr. Freeman. 2 Herodotus, i. 292. 2 See Donaldson (Varronianus, p. 49), who connects them with the Saxons in Europe. They are mentioned by Herodotus (i. 163) as a great nation in the time of Cyrus.

THE NOR^MAN PEOPLE 117 nations, probably of the same race, as we find them equally associated with the Getae in the West and the East.

These nations of Massa-Getae, Sacae, and Dahae, seem to have been the rear -guard of the Getic nations, who migrated from the East from about 1,500 to 2, 000 years B.C., and spread themselves gradually over Europe. We can form a notion of their route by tracing the various nations which they estabhshed in their course westw^ards, and which continued until the time when classical history and geography take notice of them. The Tyssa-Getae (one of these branches) were left on the banks of the Volga or Rha. The Eoxolani branched off fiu-ther on, between the Tanais (Don) and the Borysthenes (Dnieper). Then the Tyri-Getae were left to occupy the banks of the Tyras (Dniester); and w^hen the migration reached the Danube, the Getae, Daci, Tribalh, and Thracians were left behind to take possession of those regions. Thence tm^ning to the north-west, the Getic or Gothic migration ascended the Tyras till it struck the head- waters of the Vistula. On its route were detached the tribes of the Pien-Getae, and the Ars-Getae, and the nations of the Bastarnae, who occupied south Poland ; and here also commenced the great migration westward, from which sprang the Germanic nations. I. The Germ.\N" or Teutoxic race (which alone mth propriety bears those denominations) was undoubtedly of the same origin as the Getic, Gothic, and Scandinavian, as

nS THE NORMAN PEOPLE its language sufficiently proves. It consisted of the tribes of Qiiacli, Marcomanni, Hermancluri, Chatti, Cherusci, Sycambri or Cimbri, and others, which gradually took possession of the centre of modern Germany from the Lippe southwards,^ and from the Carpathians to the Ehine. These tribes were confederate from an early period. The most ancient loiown name of the confederation was ' Teutones,' a term which occurs in the fom'th century B.C. ; that of ' Germans ' was given by the Eomaus. It arose from the guttural pronunciation of * Hermiones ' then the federal name ; and the Eomans incorrectly applied this name to all nations east of the Ehine, instead of to the central race, to which alone it properly belonged. The Germans were afterwards confederated under the name of ' Franks,' and were conquerors of northern Gaul.^ In later times they became again ' Teutones ' or Dutch, and ' Germans,' and so continue to the present day. This race, whose language is a harsh and guttural dialect of the original Gotliic or Getic, is aboriginal in Germany, having occupied its proper territories, and maintained a distinct federative nationality, for more than 3,000 years. II. The Goths. Wliile the German migration of the Getic nations proceeded westwards, the main body of

1 Donaldson (Varronianus, p. 76) observes tliat the 'strong, but narrow

stream' of bigh-German conquest disturbed the southern and low-German [i.e. Gothic] tribes.' 2 For some time Germany was called ' East France.' See Freeman, Essays, 1871, pp. 220, 221.

THE NOEI^IAN PEOPLE 119 those tribes advanced northwards along the Vistula, to its mouth, under the name of Getae or Goths. To the east of the Vistula, the Samo-Getae were despatched to settle Lithuania.^ The Goths seated themselves all along the Vistula ; the Phi'uguudiones, one of their branches, to the east, were the same as the Bm^gundiones, who were seated to the west of the Vistula. Then, as the nation expanded itself along the south shores of the Baltic^ and the adjacent provinces (while the Germans advanced in parallel columns fiu'ther south,) the various denominations of Vindals, or Vandals, Lombards, Varini, Suevi arose, and in later times became known in liistory. Thence the Gothic migration still continually pressed on towards the west, and left the races of Saxones, Chauci, Augh, Frisians, and others, established from the Elbe to the mouths of the Ehine, and beyond them in modern Belgium. These territories of the Goths included the north of the mediseval kingdom of Poland, and the countries we know as Prussia Proper, Brandenbm^gh, Mecklenbm^gh, Holstein, Sleswig, Hanover, the Free Cities, Westphaha, Brunswick, Oldenbmgh, Holland, and Flanders. It was tliis wing of the Goths that overthrew the Eoman Emphe and divided its territories ; and from this wing also sprang

^ Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 51. 2 The inhabitants of the southern shores of the Baltic, extending 6,000 stadia or 750 miles in length, were in common styled Guttones or Goths in the fourth century B.C., according to Pytheas (see Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxvii. 11). It is stated by Pytheas that the Guttones sold the amber which they found on the shores of the Baltic to their [inland] neighbours the Teutones.

120 THE NORMAN PEOPLE the Anglo-SaxOxVS, who were originally tribes of Frisians, Saxons, or Chaiici, Angles, and Jutes,^ or Goths, from the various Gothic provinces extending from the Ehine to the Elbe, and into Jutland. The Anglo-Saxons were entirely Gothic in origin, and their language was piuely Gothic so much so that modern pliilologists can re-construct its original inflexions and grammar, wherever defective, merely by inferences from those of the Moeso-Gothic.^ It is even held by philologists of eminence ^ that the Gothic and the Anglo-Saxon present the normal type of the language, and that in

forming a comparison of this family of language with those of the remainder of the Indo-Eiu-opean race it is advisable not to take the German or Teutonic into account, as it appears to be a pecuhar and incorrect dialect, harsh and guttural in its form, and differing materially from the softer and more genuine Gothic. TTT . The Scam)INAVIANS. Setting aside mere speculations as to the migration of the Goths into Sweden and Norway through Eussia, and round the north of the 1 The Jutes, Vithes, Goths, or ' Geata,' come from Jutland, or, as it is styled, ' Vithe's-Lseth ' (Varronianus, 51). It is curious to find the Jutic or Gothic ' Lathe ' in Kent, the original settlement of the Jutes, and to notice the Jutic or Jutland local names of Hyem, Helium, Hobro, Bouling, Soodberg, Sydling, Hemme, Breston, Himstead, Colding, Capel, and Breadstadt, as represented in the Kentish topography by High am, Elham, Holborough, Bowling, Southborough, Sellinge, Ham, Preston, Hemstead, Cowling, Capel, and Brastead. These names were transferred from Jutland to Kent in the fifth century probably. * See Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 236. ' Burnouf, cited by Pritchard, Natural History of Man, iii. 347,

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 121 Baltic, it seems that the natural course of the Gothic migratiou into Scandinavia was from the southern shores of the Baltic and the Danish waters. As the Goths spread along the Baltic they came to Jutland, thence passed into the Danish Islands, thence across the Sound into Sweden, and thence throughout the whole of Sweden and Norway. It is conceived that they were the earhest occupants of these countries, and that the Lapps and Finns (a branch of the Tchudi) came afterwards from Asia. From the Goths thus settled in Scandinavia sprang the Goths of Sweden, the Jutes, Getae, or Goths of Denmark, the Daci or Dani ^ of Denmark, and other tribes, all ahke of Getic or Gothic origin. From these tribes sprang the Daci or Danes of England, and the Northmen or Normans, who were of the same race, and were indifferently styled by either name. The Danes in England were equally styled Normans, and the Normans were equally entitled Danes. It is pretty certain that of the so-called Danes in England great numbers were from Sweden,^ and no doubt many Danes

' The use of * Daci ' instead of ' Dani ' is so general amongst mediaeval writers, that it appears probable that the latter term is only a corruption of the former. There were Dahae or Dacae, seated near the Getae, in the East, who left their name to Daghestan. They again appear as a branch of the Getae on the Danube. And they also appear with the Getae in Scandinavia.

2 Mr. F. S. Prideaux remarks, in the Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1863, pp. 412, 413, on the presence of the English physical type of man in Sweden and Denmark, its absence in German Prussia, and its recurrence in Gothic Brunswick and Hanover.

122 THE NORJtlAN PEOPLE from Denmark were settled in Normandy besides Norwegians ; but the origin of these races was the same piu-ely Gothic. The early Eussian race was beyond doubt Gothic ; but whether Euric and his people sprang from a direct migration from Sweden, as usually held, or whether they were descendants of the early Eoxolaui, as held by some, is a point which the author has not time or space to examine, and which appears to have no material bearing on the objects of this work. From what has been above said, ifc appears that there is an historical solecism in styling the Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Gothic nations and their languages ' Teutonic,' or ' Low-German,' as is frequently done from a want of due consideration. We might as well term the ' German ' ' Low Scandinavian,' or the ' French ' ' Low Spanish,' as style the Gothic races and their dialects ' Low-German.' The Scanchnavians, the Hollanders, the Sleswig-Holsteiners, tlie Dutch, the Hanoverians, the Enghsh, and the Americans, cannot with propriety be styled Germans ; the Germans and they are descended from coeval ancestors. The Teutons are as much a branch of the Enghsh as the Enghsh are a branch of the Teutons, and both assertions are equally incorrect. Both nations are descendants of the aboriginal Getae, the greatest of all the families that sprang from Japhet. It seems desirable to notice the incorrectness of this popular nomenclature of races (which arises from adoption

THE NORMAN PEOPLE 123 of the German practice), because the question of race has passed out of the category of abstract theory, and has become one of serious reahty. 'Nations and languages against dynasties and treaties,' says Professor Max Mliller. ' This is what has re-modelled, and will re-model still more, the map of Em^ope.' The question of ' German ' and 'Non-German' is no longer an indifferent theme, since Germany has evinced so strong a disposition to convert theory into fact, and to reduce by force to Germanic unity all nations which it is possible to identify as of Germanic race. It is not wise in the nineteenth centmy to adopt theories as to the origin of races which might have been prudently indulged in, in the eighteenth. The Enghsh dominions at the present day contain a vast population of Gothic origin. Taking the Eiu'opean

races of the Empire at forty millions (setting aside all races of African or Oriental bhth) it may be stated generally, that the properly English race comprises thirty millions out of forty milhons, the remainder being composed of Celts, foreigners, and Hebrews. These thirty milhons, are the descendants of the Gotliic race in its threefold form of Saxon, Dane and Norman. In all probabihty the Danish element is about equal to the Saxon, and the Saxon about equal to the Norman ; there is no evidence that any great disparity exists between the respective members of these three races. It seems probable that the mass of the Saxon population remains amongst the less influential and wealthy part of the community, because there is reason

124 THE NOEMAN PEOPLE to suppose that the superior energy and enterprise of the Danish and Norman character have in general determined the relative position of races in England. It is, however, impossible to suppose a rule which is not hable to many exceptions, and it would be in vain to attempt to apply it in any way to individual cases, or to affirm that Norman and Danish blood always imphes energy and intellect, and Saxon descent the reverse ; we have too many instances to the contrary. What may be safely affirmed is, that the Enghsh nation is homogeneous in a high degree, perhaps more so than any Continental nation of equal importance; and that its origin is not Teutonic, but Gothic. What has been here remarked of the European population of the Enghsh empire may be equally said of that of the United States of America. Different in some respects as may be the pohtical arrangements of the two countries, the same nation constitutes the population of both. In England we have retained those ancient Gothic institutions whose origin ascends not merely to Norman or Anglo-Saxon times, but to the commencement of society in modern Eiu:ope, and to an era far more remote than the dowmfall of the Eoman Empire. This country furnishes a unique example o